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pt. 24 When I'm Gone Love Me None

Tyler pushed me forward through the train station, his hand on the small of my back. Everything around me felt blurry and disconnected after the dream I had, a cold fear had settleded along my spine. Before I knew it, we were in the taxi and headed toward a chinese food place to get takeout.

"Hey Aurora, are you okay? You seem out of it," Tyler said to me after we got our food.

I smiled briefly and replied, "Yeah I just had a creepy dream on the train and I can't seem to shake the feeling."

"Maybe if you tell me it'll make you feel better. One time I had a dream I was in the woods and some dude was watching me, it totally freaked me out but I told Josh and then felt better."

Josh.

The mention of his name left a sharp pang in my chest and suddenly I missed him dearly. I wondered what he was doing right now, where he and Mark had decided to eat. Then I realized Tyler had just decribed my exact dream.

"Well that's eery," I spoke to him softly.

"Why?"

"That's the same dream I had, and it was winter and freeezing. The trees were naked of their leaves and he was just standing there, staring."

A soft punch landed on my arm and he chuckled, "No way, you didn't have the same dream as me," he started to joke more but the look on my face shut him up. "Oh. You mean you really did?"

"Yeah, I did. But we're home now so lets not talk about it anymore. I just want to forget about it and eat dinner."

Except I couldn't stop thinking about it. It ran through my head: how could we have had the same dream? It didn't make any sense, had I already mentioned it? Was Tyler messsing with me?

"Aurora," he snapped me out of my worried haze.

"What?"

Through a large mouthful of green beans he said, "You and your brother were close as kids right?"

"Why are you thinking about that? Yeah, yeah, we were."

"I was just wondering because of how close Zack and I were. I know you guys used to run around town together, spray painting and being hoodrats even though you were always too scared and he always had to calm you down before you'd touch a can. So I was just thinking if he would do that for you then you must've been close."

I was confused, I didn't remember telling him about my teen years with Alex. I never talked about my family like that. "When did I tell you that?"

He shrugged nonchalantly, "Eh, I don't remember. Anyway I'm stuffed, lets go to sleep."

Tyler grabbed my hand and led me down the hall to our bedroom, stopping to kiss me every few steps. When we were outside of the door he whispered, "You know I had fun seeing my parents, but I really missed you." He pushed my back against the wall and began kissing my with more force than he ever had before. His lean body pressed against mine and even though we just ate, I knew he was hungry.

We entered the room and he pushed me onto the bed, taking his shirt off as he did. For the first time since we'd been together I felt like Tyler actually wanted me. We were both naked now and he climbed on top of me, I wrapped my sticky legs around his back and leaned forward. My eyes were closed and I was lost in the moment.

When I finally opened them, I looked over Tyler's shoulder and saw the man from my nightmare standing above him, barely visible.

I shrieked.